


spark

by dspd



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Non-Penetrative Sex, Post-Canon, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25191766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dspd/pseuds/dspd
Summary: "Fine."Zuko is nearly snarling at her and her heart gives a vicious thump of satisfaction, her insides coiling to strike.  Her fingers curl in anticipation of a good fight."Fine," he repeats, softer but no less loaded. "I'm not sorry."Katara has a split second to register his fingers tangling in her hair before his mouth lands on hers.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 218





	spark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoldenMagicSlingshot91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenMagicSlingshot91/gifts).



> Happy birthday to Cinder! She inspired this to be more than a mashup of partially communicated images that I word vomited at everyone in the channel.
> 
> Also, this is deliberately post-canon and vague so you can fill in why they've ended up in a small dark, enclosed space in the first place.

All she hears is “Katara, loo-” and the earth above them is crumbling and something hits her knee and she’s stumbling. The last thing she sees is Zuko’s face as he dives towards her before his flame is snuffed out.

  
  
  


Katara takes stock of her situation for a few long minutes.

She can still feel the earth settling around them, the vibrations echoing in her bones, smaller pieces of earth thudding down around her, and finally, the feeling of dust drifting down. She can also feel Zuko’s breath hitting her cheek as he coughs quietly above her. Everything is too close and she’s acutely aware of the placement of his arms and legs as they bracket her body, the way his chest is directly above her face. There’s a surreal quality in the way she registers the heat emanating from him compared to the cool dirt against her back and the sting of scrapes making themselves known. Her feet and shin are covered in rubble and, as she tries to move her foot, she’s happy to discover the dirt is looser than she initially thought.

“Are you okay?” She asks, reaching out to feel the size of the space they’re in. Luckily, they seem to be on the edge of a larger space so they won’t need to worry about running out of breathable air for a while. She refuses to think about what’ll happen if it’s smaller than she thinks it is.

Zuko still hasn’t answered.

“Zuko?”

Zuko takes another ragged breath and something about it sounds not good.

“Yeah,” he replies.

They’re too close together for her to miss the fine tremor that races through his body.

“Are you okay?” she repeats, reaching up to touch his arm in time to feel another tremor slide through his muscles.

“Yeah. I’m-,” he hesitates, “I’m not good in dark spaces.”

Something about the way he says that throws her back to that night when he’d revealed the horrifying story of how he got his scar. Katara frowns up in the general direction of his face.

“Can you, you know,” she takes a deep breath and puffs at him, “the dragon breath thing? For light?”

“Only if you want to lose your eyebrows. Can you move? There's something on my ankle."

His voice is still tight and she’s glad it’s dark as she blushes.  _ Duh _ . She starts to bring her foot up to brace herself, then reconsiders the placement. She starts again. Reconsiders. Tries again. This time Zuko grunts at her attempt.

“Sorry, sorry!" Katara pauses. "I'm gonna-"

She starts twisting and this time Zuko jolts and lets out a little pained sound as she tries to wiggle free.

"Katara!"

“I know!"  _ Tui, give me patience _ , she thinks as she replies, barely reigning in the annoyance that pushes at her.

Just as she flops onto her stomach and starts to crawl away, Zuko makes a pained noise and jolts against her, his chest curling down against her back.

"What!" she exclaims, "what did I do?"

Zuko pushes himself up again and she can hear the astronomical level of tension in his jaw as he clenches his teeth. "Nothing. Now. Move.  _ Please _ ."

Katara knows her temper tends to run high, especially when he's being the Ponytail Prince, as Sokka calls him, but sometimes she can't believe how ridiculous he can be. She scrambles into her hands and knees, pointedly ignoring the way she jostles against him, causing one of his hands to slip and shuffles forward until she's free, flopping onto the ground. The moment she's out of his way, she hears the rustle of his clothes as he turns around and the shift of the earth, presumably freeing his ankle. Eventually, even those soft noises fade away and all she hears is the steady in and out of his breathing.

It’s quiet and familiar. She closes her eyes against the dark, and is instantly transported to the countless times they've meditated together, Aang on one side, Zuko on the other, their heartbeats syncing as they focus on the source of their power, Toph and Sokka sleeping nearby.

Zuko's breath hitches and Katara is so attuned to it that her eyes fly open.

Not that it matters.

_ I'm not good in dark spaces _ .

It's still pitch black.

"Zuko," she asks, carefully injecting the perfect amount of dry to make it humorous, "now that my eyebrows are safe, can you give us some light?" Maybe that was too dry. Darn.

The gravel around Zuko crackles as he shifts next to her. "Um, I don't- I-"

"Can you try? Just for a minute so we can see what we have?"

Zuko sighs. "Okay."

He's shifting again and a moment later the smallest, beautifully formed flame is fluttering to life between his fingers that he holds up to see better.

Katara barely has time to process that their space is smaller than she thought when the light gutters out.

"There's not enough air to bend and breath easily," Zuko explains. He's got that defensive edge to his words that always grates on her nerves, no matter how many times she hears, even after all these years of friendship.

They're silent some more.

"I bet Toph is stomping around already and will find us soon," Katara finally says, trying to ignore the places her brain is going, trying to convince herself she's imagining that the air is already thinner, that's she can feel that stifling experience of breathlessness, feeling like the edges of their small space are shrinking.

"Whatever."

Katara focuses on her breathing for a moment, feeling her nostrils flare at his dismissive tone. Her throat tightens. She tries to hold it back but-

"You know, you're not the only one that doesn't like to be in here."

It bursts out, and it sounds even nastier than she thought it would. It sits between them at Zuko's feet and the air feels heavier as she cringes inside, waiting for him to snap back.

"Sorry," he says instead.

It's the perfect balance of humility and apology and she just  _ knows _ he's being honest and he'll think on her words and try to do better and somehow that's even more infuriating and she's unloading on him and feeling guilty the moment the words pass her lips, knowing he's probably slumped over and taking it without defending himself.

"Why do you always do that?" she asks a little wildly, "Why can't you stand up for yourself? You're no better than you used to be! Stop letting people be mean to you! Stop-"

Zuko tries to slap a hand over her mouth but ends up scratching her cheek as he aims blindly. The sting barely begins to bloom when he swears and is pushing into her space, one hand pushing into the soft wall by her ear, the other tapping her cheek and ghosting over her mouth as she sucks in air to yell at him.

"Fine."

Zuko is nearly snarling at her and her heart gives a vicious thump of satisfaction, her insides coiling to strike. Her fingers curl in anticipation of a good fight.

"Fine," he repeats, softer but no less loaded. "I'm not sorry."

Katara has a split second to register his fingers tangling in her hair before his mouth lands on hers.

It's hot, literally, as his lips slide over hers, the sensitive seam on the outside of her lips are burning the same way they feel when she eats food that's too spicy. He's demanding and firm and his hold on her hair sends a tingle through her. Her anger won’t be subdued so easily, though. She softens her jaw and gasps and he takes it as permission to push closer, his own jaw loosening in response as he tries to claim more.

She bites his lip. Hard.

Zuko rears back with a gasp. “By Agni, Katara!”

He sounds shocked and angry and that’s exactly what she wants right now. She guesses where he is and pushes into the blackness, feeling a stab of satisfaction when her palms connect and he falls back with a yelp and thud. She scrambles to her knees and is on top of him, licking her way into his mouth, savoring that raw taste on his lip as he hisses.

It’s another type of battle between them, one she feels like she can always count on as they fight for dominance. He’s making this motion with his hands that’s driving her crazy. It’s a solid, hot movement that moves up and down her waist, each change in direction tugging sparks of sensitivity out of an area she usually doesn’t even notice. The calluses on his hands are exquisite as they drag against her body. In retaliation, she moans and grinds down, pleased when it punches a choked off noise out of him. When his thumbs brush against the underside of her breasts she trembles and arches back, electricity arrowing down and settling in her thighs. She doesn’t have time to counter. He’s pushing up to meet her, his mouth finding the soft skin of her stomach as he unties her top, pulling at it carelessly until it falls away. 

The air around them is warm and humid and she enjoys the way his movements yank her against him, the silk of his outer robe dragging against her nipples, startling cool compared to the heat of Zuko’s mouth as he bites gently on her collarbone and nibbles at the soft swell of her breast just below.

Katara’s losing in the push and pull of their fight but it’s the best possible way to lose she thinks as she gasps and pushes his head farther down before she grabs his shoulders for balance. He laughs and she arches into the delicious buzz.

“Zuko.” she chokes out, desperate for him to-

When his tongue, flat and wide and wet, licks across her nipple she cries out and arches into it. His arms are around her, his hands branding her back as he holds her in place.

It’s wonderful but she’s not ready to give in yet.

Instead, she rolls her hips deliberately, slowly, so carefully she can feel every inch of him in his pants, and is gratified by Zuko’s hands tightening around her as he releases her to gasp.

“Kata-”

She interrupts him, this time with a sharp hard jerk that makes her own knees jerk in pleasure.

Zuko curses and rolls and she’s on her back, a bit of gravel digging into her spine in a painful counterpoint to the soft mouth on her own. He’s sloppy and the kiss is kind of wet and off-center but she doesn’t care because hips are working against her and she’s urging him on as he grinds down. He shifts and props himself up on an elbow, and the change in position is so, so nice, especially when he’s pinching her nipple hard and she’s gasping, feeling his breath against her chin and ear as he moves.

Katara has nearly forgotten their fight, so distracted by the waves of sensation washing through her with every move, when his hips stutter. She wraps her legs around him and digs her heels into the small of his back, fingers finding and tightening in his hair.

“Yeah, Zuko,” she dares him, “do it.”

Zuko finds her mouth again but she tears free and he fastens onto the side of her neck instead, sucking hard. She’s rocking against him, too, and the pleasure pulsing between her legs intensifies. Every move is zipping through her core and she’s not sure she’ll last.

“Come on,” she taunts, “come on, Zuko!”

Zuko gives a final hard push and freezes against her, a long, drawn-out groan ripping its way out of his throat before he sort of collapses to the side, pinning her arm underneath him for a long minute as he pants.

Katara idly plays with her skin, fingers ghosting over her chest, circling over her stomach, and down to tease the hem of her skirt before wandering back up to press against the bruise blooming on her neck. 

Katara’s still pulsing deep inside, at the edge of her own wave of pleasure but she doesn’t mind  _ because she won _ . And that means...

“So,” she says, a hint of laughter in her voice as he flips over and frees her arm. “Are you going to help a girl out or should I get started by myself?”

Zuko growls mockingly and reaches for the ties to her skirt as she laughs, settling between her knees again.

He makes sure she doesn’t have the breath to say anything else for a long time


End file.
